

i 



CITIZENSHIP TRAINING THROUGH THE BALLOT 


Something is the matter with America. Indifferent national, state 
' and community government is accepted as a matter of course. The 
^ alien and the radical problems stir us almost to violence but not to 
constructive action. Social service for community betterment, is 
carried on by private agencies long after it has been standardized, 
because we do not trust our government. Citizens do not vote and 
have only a casual knowledge of matters of community welfare. 
> They think of Americanization and citizenship as things pertaining 
exclusively to aliens, have no sense of individual responsibility, and 
feel entirely justified in complaining of conditions which only their 
own active citizenship can correct. 

If a man were sleeping and someone awakened him and said, 
“Your house is on fire and your family is in danger,” he would hasten 
to their rescue and do everything possible to save them. If on receiv¬ 
ing the news, he said, “Oh, let the firemen take care of that,” and 
went to sleep again, he would indicate much the same conception of 
duty to his family, that the average citizen has of the duty he owes 
to his city, state and nation. 

We are in a period of low citizenship morale. This is not merely 
an after-the-war reaction, but is the logical outcome of a failure in 
our schools, churches and homes to train those who are the citizens 
of today, during the impressionable years of their youth, that the 
rights of an American citizen can only be preserved to him through 
his recognition and performance of his duties as an American citizen. 

This condition cannot be remedied by changing the form of gov¬ 
ernment, the panacea offered by most reformers. It cannot be 
changed by the naturalization of the aliens, important as that is. It 
cannot be changed by the deportation of radicals, desirable as that 
seems to be at times, nor by transporting to the polls citizens who 
are too sluggish to go there without it. 

The “black death” which destroyed nearly one-half of the popula¬ 
tion of England in the fourteenth century, was looked upon as a visi¬ 
tation of Providence. The few people now active and interested in 
social and political progress in America almost accept the inertia and 
apathy of the citizen of today as a “visitation of Providence.” But, 
/ this very lack of interest and desire to participate in matters vital to 
( all is responsible for present day conditions, and it is the disease 
which must be cured and it can only be cured by the development 
of the spirit of citizenship based on the moral obligation of one to 
another. 

Let us consider the fundamentals. The American government 
is a government of the people by themselves. This is not an abstract 
statement, but a concrete condition. It follows that if the citizen 

3 


is the unit of government, government can be no better than the 
citizen and it becomes self-evident that if we are to have good govern¬ 
ment, meaning not only the administration of our affairs but progress 
of every kind, our most important work is the development of the 
active conscious, conscientious citizen which can come only as the 
result of definite, concrete systematic citizenship training. 

This training should put into the mind and heart of the citizen 
some element which will compel him to participate in his government; 
compel him to inform himself as to the things relating to the progress 
of the community, state and nation, and compel him to realize his 
personal responsibility for bringing the foreign-born who become part 
of our commonwealth, into citizenship. 

The foundation of citizenship, in a form of government in which 
the citizen is answerable only to himself for performing his duties, 
must be individual honor, a realization and conviction that citizenship 
involves a moral obligation to oneself and one’s fellows, and an appre¬ 
ciation that failure to perform the duties of a citizen destroys self- 
respect and discredits him in the minds of others. Citizenship must 
be interpreted in terms of honesty, fair play, the square deal and the 
golden rule. The same reaction should take place in the mind of a 
citizen, who fails in a duty, that occurs in the mind of a normal man 
who does a dishonest thing. 

The only time that character building is really done is during the 
plastic years of childhood. Citizenship training is part of character 
building and can only be accomplished at the same time that the 
child is learning to be straightforward and upright in his dealings 
with men, because real citizenship means honorable relations with 
others, and just as the morals, principles and precepts that govern 
him throughout his life, become part of his life so must the perform¬ 
ance of the duties of citizenship become part of his moral fiber. 

Consider a few of the well known effects of childhood environ¬ 
ment as proof as to what is done to us at that time. Our political 
leanings are determined in most cases before we reach maturity. The 
sentiment of the home does that. Our religious affiliations are settled 
for us during childhood, often beyond our own power to change. As 
the greatest example in history of what childhood training can do, 
the Germans, through their educational system, created a type of 
citizen which made possible their attempt to dominate the world. In 
approximately 92% of the people, through the German common 
school, initiative was destroyed, obedience to an upper class was 
established, and the belief that Germany was surrounded by enemies 
was made a part of every man’s mind. Of course, they were ready 
to fight. They had no volition. From the standpoint of producing 
the desired results, it was the most successful example of citizenship 
training in history. 


From the standpoint of the effect of childhood training on social 
progress, consider the eighteenth amendment. It was not the men 
and women of today who voted to do away with liquor but the boys 
and girls of fifty, forty, and thirty years ago. Their school books 
taught them the vicious effects of alcohol on the human system. 
Their mothers taught them that to drink was wrong. The churches 
made temperance part of their teaching. For nearly fifty years, 
American children, during the character molding years, have been 
trained in the belief that the drinking of intoxicating liquor is 
immoral. America is the only country in the world where people 
look upon drinking intoxicating liquor as immoral, and because our 
child ren have been trained in that belief, we are fifty or a hundred 
years ahead of other nations in its elimination. 

The National Tuberculosis Association has seven million children 
enrolled as “Health Crusaders,” learning in an interesting way, the 
habits of cleanliness, sanitation, and fresh air, and the results will be 
more far-reaching in the years to come in the elimination of tubercu¬ 
losis than if a sanitorium were built on every square mile in America. 
Many other examples can be given but Solomon summed up the 
whole matter when he said, “Train up the child in the way he should 
go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Put the right 
conception of citizenship into the mind and heart of the child and 
he cannot help doing hi$ duty when he reaches the age of maturity. 

You, who are reading this may admit that our reasoning is good, 
but the question will arise in your mind, “what is to be done about 
salvaging the citizenship of the present generation? Child training 
is essential and necessary,” you will say, “and will provide against 
the continuation of the present condition, but what about today, and 
what about the aliens who must surely be brought into citizenship.” 

No plan for citizenship, training is a good one which does not 
include the child, the grown-up and the alien, the three elements 
that must be dealt with in a citizenship program. It must have as 
its first and most important element the inculcation of the conviction 
of moral obligation of citizenship in the mind and the heart of the 
child, but it must accomplish this through the activity of the child, 
which must be such as reaches the grown-up and the alien. In 
other words, the child must learn by doing, and in doing he must 
reach the citizen and the alien. Thus, through the strongest known 
appeal, the welfare of the child, the citizen and the alien will be 
stirred into action. 

The idealization of the vote is the means proposed for accom¬ 
plishing citizenship training, the salvaging of American citizenship of 
today, and the acceleration of the movement of the alien towards 
naturalization. The slogan is, “EVERY MAN AND EVERY WOMAN 
SHOULD BE A REGULAR VOTER.” 

Why should the ballot be used as the agency for citizenship 
training? It is selected because it has continuity, through the recur- 

5 


rence of elections, and continuity is an essential element in education. 
It has the element of moral obligation, recognized superficially by 
every citizen. Ask anyone to define a good citizen and his answer 
will be, “one who votes regularly.” He believes that voting is some¬ 
thing everbody should do but his conviction is not such as to compel 
him to carry out his belief. Voting is the only definite act of partici¬ 
pation in government common to every man and woman. The three 
elements, continuity, basic moral obligation on which to build the 
argument and instruction, and a specific act of participation in gov¬ 
ernment common to all, makes the ballot an ideal agency for carrying 
the lesson of citizenship training. 

Let us assume that citizenship training, through the idealization 
of the vote, has been going on until every man and every woman 
goes to the polls faithfully on every election day, and that they do 
so because they have been impressed with the sacredness of the ballot, 
then several things will have been accomplished. 

1. The “vote will be out” every election day, insuring 
the leaders in any progressive movement that the effort made 
by them will not be lost because of a light vote and making 
sure that the representatives elected by the people will be at 
least as good as the average intelligence and honesty of the 
community, with something better than the average, as unsel¬ 
fish leadership develops. 

2. There will have been developed a need for information 
on the part of the citizen, because any person who has been 
convinced that he has a duty to perform must necessarily feel, 
in order to be honest with his own conscience, that he must 
secure the facts which will enable him to perform that duty in 
the best way for himself and others. 

3. There will have been’ established a community 
standard, expressed in the slogan, “EVERY MAN AND EVERY 
WOMAN SHOULD BE A REGULAR VOTER,” which will 

make citizenship necessary and desirable to the alien, because 
the alien is willing and anxious to conform to a standard, set 
by the Americans, just as he did to those set during the war¬ 
time, when the Liberty Loan bonds were sold and the. Red 
Cross subscriptions were taken. Any standard established 
and conformed to by the American, which applies first to him 
becomes something most desirable to the alien. Naturaliza¬ 
tion will become necessary and desirable to him, and the 
initiative towards it will be placed upon him when a standard 
affecting all of the people is accepted and observed by the 
American citizen. 

4. We will have established a constant example of faithful 
citizenship for the child and for the alien. We will not be 
preaching ideals of citizenship and ignoring the acts of citizen¬ 
ship. You cannot fool children or aliens. You cannot teach 

6 


honesty and have it effective unless you are honest in your 
own actions, and this applies especially to citizenship. 

5. By convincing the women of America, that suffrage 
is not a privilege, but an obligation, expressed, for the present, 
in the ballot, we will have placed the training of the child 
in citizenship in the home, where it belongs as much as the 
/raining in honesty in all other relations in life belongs in 
the home. ' 

Anticipating the statement that “the vote is not all there is to 
it, we admit it. The vote is not all there is to citizenship, but it is 
the first step and furnishes an ideal instrument for training the indi¬ 
vidual in the moral obligation of citizenship, and this must come before 
anything else whether the vote is used, or something better in its 
place. 

As heretofore stated, plans for citizenship training must be con¬ 
crete, definite and systematic. Training through the ballot is syste¬ 
matic because it occurs in connection with elections, which come 
regularly, and concrete and definite because the child learns, through 
urging people to vote and through practical lessons in school, that 
a citizen has duties to perform and that these duties are part and 
parcel of his honor. 

The appeal of the child to the grown-up to do something which 
is so apparently for the welfare of the child is the surest and simplest 
way of bringing him back to a realization of his duty. The child 
who goes to a home where parents are citizens, is asking the mother, 
father and other members of the family to do something that they 
know is right, and which they know they must do as a part of the 
child’s training. The child, filled with the ideals of active citizenship, 
who goes to a home where the parents are not citizens, has greater 
influence in bringing them into citizenship than any outside activity 
possibly could. 

The spirit of patriotism, which we have made a part of every 
man, woman and child in America, made possible the mobilization 
of an army to fight in defense of self-government. Patriotism was the 
basis of service whether the men were officers or private soldiers, 
and patriotism is only another name for moral obligation. We must 
mobilize the citizenship of America on the same basis, whether we 
call it patriotism, or moral obligation, so that the ordinary every 
day duties of the citizen in time of peace, will be as sacred as the 
duty to sacrifice in time of war. 

The Plan. 

The plan is very simple. A Citizenship Contest is carried on 
in connection with each election. The purpose of this contest is to 
stimulate competition in citizenship between wards, precincts, or 
townships. The district, which sends the largest number of persons 
to the polls in proportion to population, if population figures are 

7 


available, or in proportion to registration, is the winner in this con¬ 
test, and the school children in the schools in that district receive 
the credit for the highest citizenship standing. 

In each school, a series of citizenship lessons, is given for three 
weeks before the election. These lessons interpret voting as a duty 
which honor should compel every “grown-up” to perform. In connec¬ 
tion with them, the teacher urges the children to talk to the family, 
friends and neighbors, about voting at the coming election, and she 
asks from time to time for reports of what they have done. Each 
child is taught that he is a citizen and that he is doing a citizen’s 
duty in doing this work, just as he would be if he were twenty-one 
and could vote. 

The grown-up citizen participates in the plan through the appeal 
to him, by the child to maintain the honor of the family and the district 
and the citizen who would not otherwise vote, cannot help but feel that 
he must do so to maintain and develop the faith of the child. The 
alien confronted with a demand from his children that he be a voter, 
has a new view of citizenship, expressed as tangible action, rather 
than more or less hazy ideals. 

Prizes, which are usually flags, are given to all schools in the 
winning ward, precinct or township. First and second prizes can 
be given when funds make it possible. Prizes are awarded as soon 
as official figures are available. 

Evidence that the citizen has done his duty on election day is 
given by the voter’s tag on which is inscribed, “I voted.” Every 
citizen is given a tag, when he votes, and is asked to wear it on elec¬ 
tion day. It is the child’s duty on election day to remind every 
person who does not wear a tag, that he should vote’. 

Essay Contest: The Essay Contest is an annual event following 
the Spring general election where such an election is held. Prizes 
are given to individuals, and essays are usually written by children 
in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. These essays relate 
experiences in getting the people to vote, and indicate the child’s 
understanding of a citizen’s duty, and what he has, through the 
activities of the campaign, acquired. They furnish publicity material 
to be used in later campaigns. Some of these essays follow the 
citizenship lessons. 

Three Typical Citizenship Lessons. 

1. If there were a big block of wood standing in your yard and 
you put kerosene on it and touched a match to it, it would burn 
and become ashes. If, instead of burning it, you allowed it to stand 
without protection from the weather, it would, after a long time, 
gradually rot away to dust. In either case, the block of wood would 
be completely destroyed; the only difference being that burning it 
would be more violent and quicker than allowing it to rot, but the 
result would be the same in each case. 


8 


In this country, we have, what we call anarchists, who would 
destroy government by violent methods in the same way that you 
might destroy the block of wood by burning it. We also have men 
and women citizens who ignore their government, who do not vote, 
and who do not know about matters of public welfare. They are 
destroying government just as much as the anarchists, only like the 
neglected block of wood, it takes longer, but the result is the same. 

WHAT TO DO-Talk with mother and father about the import¬ 

ance of voting and tell them that the quickest way to stop the 
anarchist and the radical is to put life into our government by taking 
part in it by voting. Tell them to be sure to vote on voting day, 
and to get their Voter’s Tag and wear it. Tell them about the 
Citizenship Contest. 

2. If all of the boys and girls in this room belonged to a Garden 
Club, and all the things that were raised in their gardens were used 
for the benefit of all of the members of the Garden Club, and if 
each child worked faithfully in his garden, then every member of the 
Garden Club would have been fair to every other member of the 
Club, and each one would have done his part for the good of all. 

If, on the other hand, one-half of the members of the Garden 
Club did their work badly, and some of them did not even start a 
garden, then those who did their work badly and those who did not 
start a garden at all would be dishonest with the other 'members 
of the Club. 

Our American Government is just like the Garden Club. Its 
success is dependent on the faithfulness of all the people, and we 
cannot have good government if part of the people are careless about 
voting, which is their part in government, and the welfare of all of 
the people is affected when part of them neglect their duty, just as 
the welfare of the Garden Club would be affected by those children 
who failed with their gardens. It is only fair to others to vote 
election day. 

WHAT TO DO: Remember the story of the garden and tell it 
to mother and father and ask them to promise to do their duty by 
going to their voting place, and casting their ballot on voting day. 
Tell them to be sure to get a tag, and wear it. Tell them about the 
Citizenship Contest. 

3. When the American soldiers in France were told to go “over 
the.top” to fight for the freedom of the world, they all went, and 
as they marched forward, sometimes alone, sometimes with their 
comrades, they always knew that they could depend on their fellow 
soldiers for full service and patriotism. A soldier never said, “I 
do not think I will fight today, I am too busy.” He went. 

A citizen who fails to march to the polls to cast his ballot on 
election day, is the same as the soldier who on the day of battle 
would fail to go with his comrades. 

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The men and women citizens of the city, state and nation are 
the army of peace and progress, and on voting day they are all 
expected to **go over the top” to the voting places. 

WHAT TO DO: Remind the members of the citizen army, in 
your family and neighborhood, that on voting day, they must go 
**over the top” with their ballots, as the soldiers in France went 
“over the top” with their bullets. Tell them to be sure to get a 
voter’s tag and to wear it, and tell them about the Citizenship Con¬ 
test. 

How the Plan Works. 

Three incidents indicating the effect of this work on the mind 
of the child are furnished by the following: 

John-, who is in the sixth grade, came home at 

noon on election day. The following conversation took place: 

John: “Mother, are you going to vote today?” 

Mother: “No, 1 have no time to vote.” 

John: “Well, then 1 won’t go back to school.” 

Mother: “That won’t do, John, you must go to school. My 

voting has nothing to do with that.” 

John: “Mother, you’re wrong. 1 just can’t go back to school 

if you don’t vote. 1 can’t be disgraced by having a mother who 
doesn’t do her duty.” 

Mother voted. 

Mary, a ten-year-old, came home also at noon on the same elec¬ 
tion day, and her mother, quite inadvertantly, made the remark, 
“1 am so tired, 1 don’t believe 1 will vote.” Mother was quite shocked 
at the rather horrified look on her daughter’s face, and after she 
had listened to a five-minute talk in which she was unfavorably com¬ 
pared with anarchists, slackers, shirkers, and other undesirable indi¬ 
viduals, and was thoroughly impressed that a citizen is not honorable 
if he doesn’t cast his ballot, she called a taxi, went to the polls, and 
she took Mary with her to be sure that she knew that her mother 
had done her duty. 

An alien came into the office. He was apparently disturbed. 
When asked, “what can we do for you,” he said, “I’ve got to get 
my papers,” and he explained, “I get a letter from you every three 
days; my wife is after me all of the time and now the kids come home 
from school every day and say, ‘Pa, you’ve got to vote,’ and I can’t 
stand the kids.” He is now a citizen and he votes regularly. 

Some of the essays submitted in an Essay Contest are as follows: 

(Grade 7-1.) There must be a government in every country. 
If there was none, our people would not be able to go out of their 
houses. If you saw a team hauling gravel and one horse did not 
pull, the load would not go as fast and well as it should. If all the 
people in our country do not vote, our government will not go 

10 


as 






fast and well as it should. The driver with his whip makes the lazy 
horse puli’ his share. Our government has no driver with a whip, 
but each citizen should be loyal, true and fair enough to make him¬ 
self pull by voting. Let’s all pull together by voting at every elec¬ 
tion and on every question. 

(Grade 7-1.) When a voting day comes, every man and woman 
should vote, because if they don’t poor officials will be elected. In 
our country we have anarchists or Reds who are trying to destroy 
our government. Non-voters destroy our government just as sur ely, 
but it takes longer. 

Suppose two men owned a house and lived in it, and each one 
was to take care of one-half of the roof. If one man failed to mend 
the leaks in his part of the house, the other man who kept his part 
mended would be uncomfortable, because the water would leak on 
him same as the other fellow. But if they keep their parts of the 
roof mended, they will be comfortable. 

It is the same way with the House of our Country; if we all 
keep our part of the roof mended by voting, we will all live com¬ 
fortably. But if some fail to keep it mended by not voting, all the 
rest of us must suffer from poor officers and poor government. 

(Grade 7-2.) People who are Americans and do not vote are 
not helping to make the United States a better place to live in. 
Aliens who come to the United States to live, and see Americans 
who do not vote, say, "What is the use of our becoming Americans 
if other people who are Americans do not vote. We can get along 
without voting as well as the people who are Americans." 

Many people are against the Reds, but they do not realize that 
they are doing j,ust as much harm by not voting. The only difference 
between the two is that one is trying to wreck the Union by fright¬ 
fulness, and the other is much slower, but in the end the result is 
the same. 

Every man, woman, and child that is a true American should 
live up to what citizenship means. These are some of the reasons 
why every man and woman of the United States should vote. 


(Age II.) Every man or woman should be a regular voter, for 
if they do not vote, poor officials may be elected; then the people 
who do not vote will be to blame. If only part of the people vote, 
it should be called poor citizenship. Citizenship is giving everyone 
a square deal. 

The American government is government by the people and for 
the people. When only part of the people vote, our plan of govern¬ 
ment is broken, and it should be called government by part of the 
people. 

A wheel on an automobile does its part in carrying the load, but 
if you break one-half of the spokes out the wheel will break. The 

11 



government is like the wheel, every person is a spoke. If only part 
of the people vote, it is like the broken wheel and the government 
will not run. 

(Age 13.) 1 am trying to become a true citizen by helping 

others to vote. A few days ago when 1 was returning from school, 
1 met one of our neighbors and asked him kindly to go and vote. 
He told me that he will go after his work will be finished, so 1 stayed 
near by watching him for some time. While I was admiring his 
handiwork, he asked me some questions about voting. 

I told him how good it is for each one of us to vote in order to 
have good officials and better laws; because if only a part of the 
m.en and women would vote there would be a poor government. 
People that do not vote destroy their government and neglect their 
rights. 

Its success is depended on the faithfulness of all the people. He 
thanked me for my answers, and promised to give me his tag the 
next day. 

(Age 12.) 1 believe citizenship means the enjoyment of the 

privileges of the United States. In return we ought to do our duty 
by voting. If the people did not vote, there would be no government. 

When the war was declared, the boys enlisted and went away. 
They needed the people at home to back them up. It is the very 
same way with the government. The people must back it up with 
their votes. Don’t you be one of the non-voters. Let us be 100% 
citizens. 


(Grade 5-1.) Every man and woman should become a voter 
because they belong to our country. If they do not vote, they are 
slackers. 

Two painters were at work. One always worked steadily, while 
the other one spent quite a great deal of time in talking to passers- 
by, but at the end of the week he demanded just as much pay as 
the man who used his time well. 

So it is with the people. Some vote and some do not, but when 
anyone harms something in their yard the slackers call for help and 
protection as well as those who vote. These people like to enjoy 
the privileges and rights of the government, but they do not like 
to perform the duties. 


(Age 10.) America is a government by the people and for the 
people. It is everybody’s business to vote. If nobody voted, then 
there wouldn’t be any government. If only a few voted, then just 
those people are running the government. If bad officials are chosen, 
it is the fault of the ones who do not vote. 


12 






Anarchists are men who are trying to destroy our government 
in a hurry. Those who do not vote are also trying to destroy our 
government. 

If we are American citizens and can vote but do not vote, we 
are shirking. We enjoy many good things under the government 
of the United States, and we all should vote. Those who do not vote 
are as bad as a soldier who refuses to go over the top with the rest 
of his comrades. 

These stories and essays indicate the effect of the training. If 
the same feeling can be developed and maintained in all of the chil¬ 
dren of the community by the same activities in connection with each 
election during the grade school period, it is certain that these 
children must feel, when they grow up, that the obligations of citizen¬ 
ship are definite, and the missing element, conscious recognition of 
citizenship duties, will have been supplied. 

What Others Say. 

These are excerpts from letters from people who have been 
interested in this experiment, and from some who have adopted it. 

Mr. W. A. Greeson, Superintendent of Schools, Grand Rapids, 
Michigan: “The work carried on through the Grand Rapids public 

and parochial schools has developed a keen sense of citizenship and 
duty to school, city, and society. We have found the pupils at all 
times very responsive, and they enthusiastically take part in all things 
which are asked of them. The parents of these pupils and citizens 
in general have been awakened to a keener sense of responsibility 
for good government. I believe that the destiny of our republic 
is in the hands of pupils now in the school. If they can be trained 
to assume the duties of citizenship, the future of our republic is 
assured. I believe we have made at least a beginnig in Grand Rapids. 

Martin J. Wade, United States District Ju dge, Iowa City, Iowa: 
“You and your co-workers in Grand Rapids have done a wonderful 
work. You may not be able to see clearly the results now, but they 
will be manifest twenty-five or fifty years from now. Continue the 
fight.” 

Frank A. Jensen, Superintendent of Schools, Benton Harbor, 
Michigan: “W^e used your scheme of getting the vote out in our 

November election. The KIwanis Club took the initiative, and the 
Chamber of Commerce and Woman’s Club gave prizes. After the 
contest the winners were given a banquet by the Kiwanis Club. The 
scheme worked well here, and we shall use it again in our city elec¬ 
tion in March. 


Ray W. Davis, Secretary Chamber of Commerce, St. Joseph, 

13 







Michigan: “We succeeded in getting out a vote at the last election 

almost equivalent to 40% of our population, and very intense interest 
was taken in the Contest by the school authorities and the school chil¬ 
dren and their parents. 1 am convinced that you have discovered a 
very efficient method for citizenship training, and wish to thank you 
for calling it up to our attention. 


C. W. Otto, Secretary Board of Commerce, Pontiac, Michigan: 
“We have been following out your suggestions and using your tags 
in connection with two elections. We found in each case they served 
as a splendid stimulant in getting people out to vote. We were 
especially interested in noting that in the school contest the school 
which won was located in a purely industrial section. We expect to 
use the plan in connection with future elections, as we believe that 
great good can be accomplished in this way. Keep up the good 
work.” 


Paul C. Stetson, Superintendent of Schools, Muskegon, Michigan: 
“The work which you are doing to educate the adult voters and 
those who will in the very near future be voters is a very important 
and unique contribution to the very perplexing problem of what 
to do with the non-voter. 

“The results in Muskegon have been of such a nature that we 
would not think of conducting an election without the co-operation 
of your Society. When the children who are now in the schools 
become voters, the full effect of your good work will be demonstrated.” 


Thomas E. Johnson, Superintendent of Public Instruction for the 
State of Michigan: “I have gone over your plan of ‘Citizenship Train¬ 
ing Through the Ballot.’ I wish to be permitted to thank you for the 
same. It is certainly a wonderful plan, and you have carried it out 
in a way that makes of it a most remarkable success.” 

E. E. Fell, Superintendent of Schools, Holland Michigan: “We 
need to emphasize the responsibilities, not the privileges of American 
citizenship. Your plan for teaching American citizenship appeals to 
me very strongly. It puts the emphasis upon the responsibility of 
the citizen.” 


Miss Cora Riggs, President of Grand Rapids Teachers’ Club, Grand 
Rapids, Michigan: “It seems from experience that the child is the 
most important factor in any program of citizenship training. The 
work that Is being done with the children is far reaching, not only 
for their future citizenship but for the influence they exert upon the 
thought of the adult. If all children can be reached and made to 
realize what citizenship means and their duty toward their country, 
the problem of the alien will be largely solved.” 

14 







J. C. Beukema, Secretary Board of Commerce Manistee, Michigan: 
“We were very much pleased with the success of the citizenship con¬ 
test held at the general election in November. The vote at this elec¬ 
tion was nearly double that at the election two years previous, and 
more than 100% larger than that cast at the last preceding city elec¬ 
tion. While the issue was such as to attract voters to the polls, it 
must be conceded that the energetic canvass by pupils in the schools 
brought out many hundreds of voters who would have neglected to 
cast their ballots had it not been for this device. I heartily con¬ 
gratulate you on the plan, which 1 am sure, can be effectively used 
in other communities as well.” 


Carl E. Pray, Head of the History Department, Michigan State 
Normal College: “The Grand Rapids Citizenship plan centers its 
work on the idea that every voter ought to vote and that every 
person in the city of Grand Rapids who is eligible to citizenship ought 
to become a citizen. Through the schools and the children a voter 
in Grand Rapids who does not exercise his right to the suffrage on 
election day finds himself in a position of undersired notoriety. Resi¬ 
dents who have been eligible to citizenship for a long time but who 
have been too indifferent to take out naturalization papers find it 
difficult to answer the questions their own and other people’s children 
ask them why they have not become citizens of the United States. As 
a direct result there has been a renewed interest in voting and a new 
conception in the minds of the citizens of Grand Rapids as to the 
duties of citizens and the privileges of citizenship. The very best 
phase of the work lies in the fact that the young people growing 
up in Grand Rapids today will consider the responsibilities of citizen¬ 
ship as the chief concern of their lives.” 


D. A. VanBuskirk, Superintendent of Schools, Big Rapids Michi¬ 
gan: “1 am very pleased to commend your system of interesting 
this school generation in the duties devolving upon citizens. The 
plan was very successful in Big Rapids last fall, both on account of 
the number of voters who were interested by the children in casting 
their votes, and the interesting information given to the children by 
this method.” 


G. J. Malcolm, Superintendent of Schools, Sault Ste. Marie, Michi¬ 
gan: “We used your Citizenship Lessons in our schools at the last 

general election and found that they did a great deal to stimulate a 
greater interest in the ballot on the part of our pupils. The vote 
cast here was heavy. Various causes contributed but the work that 
was done through the schools had a part I am sure. I plan to use 
them again at our next local election at which time I expect to get 
even better results and incidentally to have a better opportunity to 
judge of the real value of the material.” 

15 





The American Citizenship Society. 

The work outlined in this booklet has been carried on in Grand 
Rapids, by the Americanization Society, which is financed for local 
work only. 

Many inquiries relating to the Grand Rapids plan of citizenship 
training have been received and a number of cities outside of Grand 
Rapids have gone into the work on the same general lines. 

In order to furnish information to those interested to serve cities 
in applying the plan, and to promote the spread of the idea of 
CITIZENSHIP TRAINING THROUGH THE BALLOT, it was thought 
best to have a new organization, and the name American Citizenship 
Society was adopted. 

This Society will furnish without cost working plans for CITIZEN¬ 
SHIP TRAINING THROUGH THE BALLOT to any community with 

estimates of cost of carrying them out. We sell tags, posters, book¬ 
lets, citizenship lessons, lantern slides, and other material used in 
carrying on the work in Grand Rapids and elsewhere, and we expect 
to finance and extend citizenship work out of the profits secured in 
the sale of this material. 

Correspondence is solicited. 

AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP SOCIETY, 

American Citizenship Society, 

Frank L. Dykema, Secretary, 

Grand Rapids, Michigan. 


Citizenship Training 


THROUGH THE BALLOT 


“There must be schools to train us in 
the practice of our moral duties as 
men and citizens.” —John Adams 



Published by 

The American Citizenship Society 

*' GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN 

Copyright 1921 

■■ ■ 
















0 027 119 804 8 


CITIZENSHIP TRAINING THROUGH THE BALLOT 

This booklet is an attempt to analyze citizenship, to show the need 
of citizenship training and to indicate the elements which must be 
developed to produce the active, conscious and conscientious citizen. 

It includes the outline of a practical plan for citizenship training 
based on the idealization of the vote and the voting day. Actual and 
continuous experience has shown that the plan»produces results and 
that it can be used with complete success by thinking people in and 
for any community. 

This is offered with a full realization that it is only one element in 
the rapidly developing movement towards the rehabilitation of 
American citizenship. 

Correspondence is solicited and suggestions will be appreciated. 

AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP SOCIETY, 

Grand Rapids, Mich. 


fEB -5 1321 


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